RC Capture

Remote controller (RC) is one of the key devices when it comes to the black box testing of TV/STB devices. It is used to bring DUT into desired state before analyzing output. Therefore, capturing IR commands or sequences of IR commands and incorporating them into test scripts is one of key procedures in test automation. Purpose of RC Capture application is to help developers to quickly transform RC commands into format suitable for test scripts.

RC Capture application is used for “learning” IR commands of different remote controllers. The application records individual signals, as well as sequences of useful signals during the testing procedure. The main task of the RC Capture is recording of signal datasets, as well as maintenance of already recorded sets. Datasets comprise of all commands which are possible to be sent from a specific remote controller. All these commands will be stored in the configuration file with the .rcc extension. This file will be used later for building test environment configuration which is described in the Configurations & macros section.

This section provides detailed information on how to use RC Capture application to configure the RT-IR001 (Remote Controler emulator device) to be used with the specific DUT (device under test). Learning of IR commands of different remote controllers, using RC Capture application is quite simple. Just follow the sections below.

In order to create a new dataset, user should first connect USB remote controller (RC Capture device). Use the Device menu to check if the device is connected (as on Figure 2). If there is no check mark next to the name of the device (1), the Connect option should be selected (2). After the device is connected, the user has two options for creation of the new dataset. One is to select the File-> Load Template option, and to use prepared template for new dataset. The other one is to add a new remote dataset.

Figure 2: Connecting the USB remote controller

In order to create new remote dataset, follow next steps:

Select Add Remote option from the Edit menu (Figure 3)

Enter name (e.g. name of the Device Under Test – Figure 4)

Press the Learn IR Frequency button (Figure 4). After appearing of the Learn Frequency window (Figure 5), user should point the remote controller of the DUT to the RC Capture device and press any button once

Press the Learn IR Toggling button (Figure 4). After appearing of the Learn Toggling Data window (Figure 6), user should point the remote controller of the DUT to the RC Capture device and press any button twice (the same button). If there are no toggling data, message “No toggling data found” will pop up. Otherwise, the data will be remembered

Press OK. Select the Saveas option from the File menu and save the file with the .rcc extension to the desired location

This option gives you the possibility of using already prepared templates for the dataset. User has to perform following steps in order to create a new dataset:

Select signal from the tree (Figure 10); edit it with the Edit->Edit Signal option (or right click on the command and select Edit Signal)

Press the Learn IR button (Figure 11). After appearing of the Signal input window (Figure 12), user should point the remote controller of the DUT to the RC Capture device and press the desired button twice

Press the OK button. Select the File->Save option. Repeat these steps for all buttons

Once the signals are recorded, user has an option to test it by choosing the Edit->TestOutput option. Simply double-click on the desired signal or press the Enter key after selecting the signal from the tree, and that should transmit the correct IR code.

The main purpose of this option is to be able to check the functionality of other remote controllers. Two RC device emulators will be used in this scenario: one as a transmitter and another one as a receiver. On a RC emulator device which is used for receiving IR commands, the Record sequence option could be run (Record->Record Sequence or right click on the dataset and select the Record Sequence option). The other RC emulator device would transmit the recorded sequence, so the user could check if all IR commands were sent properly. Besides this, it is often used for statistic evaluation (e.g. how many times user pressed certain key on the remote controller).

Select the Record Macro option (Figure 17) from Record menu (or right click on the dataset and select the Record Macro option)

Select the Open option from the File menu and open the desired macro file (Figure 18)

The Stored Macros list will appear with all the stored macros; select the desired one (Figure 19)

Press the Load button (Figure 19)

The key sequence should be displayed in the list box (Figure 19)

Modify the sequence by adding a new command or delete already existing one from the sequence (select the command by clicking on the order number of the command and press the Delete Command button); delete the whole sequence (Clear Sequence) or test it (Play Sequence) (Figure 19)

It is possible to set and modify parameters for remote controller (Figure 21). In order to perform these modifications, select the Advanced->Configuration option.
Parameters are (according to the sequence of appearance in the table):

Number of bits read in one read-cycle (minimal number of bits that would be read, must not be shorter than signal’s length)

Nominal frequency – depends on the IR emulator (should not be changed)

Minimal signal pause (between main and repeat sequence); pause in recorded signal that is greater than this value and less than maximal pause (6), is considered as pause between main and repeat sequence – “intra-signal pause”

Maximal signal pause (between main and repeat sequence); pause in recorded signal that is greater than this value is considered as the end of a signal, and signal recording is stopped at that point

Ratio of tolerable difference between signals during the comparison (when searching for corresponding signal in base, during macro/sequence recording)

Ratio of tolerable difference between lengths of signals during comparison

Ratio of tolerable difference between each signal bit-length during the search for toggled bits in two signals

Everything below this value is considered as a peak (jitter, introduced because of inaccuracy of remote controller, allowed by IR protocols) in signal made as difference between two signals used for finding toggling information